Fonts for Typing Russian

Many common fonts such as Times New Roman, Helvetica, Comic Sans, Palatinto and many more include basic Cyrillic characters. The way to see these characters is to activate a Russian keyboard utility (see the next section for details).

Additional Russian fonts can be purchased or downloaded, but it's important that the fonts be properly encoded fonts.

Activating Keyboards

Keyboards: Native vs. Transliterated Layout

Russian keyboards utilities allow users to type Cyrillic letters on their computers. These utilitites come with two main layout option types. One is the native layout which is similar to a Cyrillic typewritier from Russia.

The other is a transliterated (or phonetic/QWERTY) layout in which Cyrillic letters are mapped to the closest English keyboard counterpart. For instance Latin Latin D would be Cyrillic Д, S would be Cyrillic "С (C)", Latin "R" would be Cyrillic "Р (Ρ) " and Latin "P" would be Cyrillic "П". This layout is often preferred by English speakers because it is easier to remember the position of the letters.

Basic Instructions (Windows and Mac)

Windows

Note: For learners in Windows 10, the Russian Mnemonic keyboard is recommended.